Shootback and Reach Incorporated release A to Z: The Real DC

Shootback is proud to have collaborated with the youth literacy and leadership nonprofit Reach Incorporated to create A to Z: The Real DC, a unique version of an alphabet book. Through their own photos and poetry, eight teens give you an alphabetical tour of the District from Anacostia to the National Zoo. Kids can learn their letters while discovering some of DC’s hidden gems in this fresh take on the nation’s capital

A to Z: The Real DC was launched at the DC Author Festival on October 18, 2014 at the MLK Library in Washington, DC. Napresha Parham and Marques Knight, two of the Reach teen authors/photographers, gave a reading of the poetic stanzas that accompany each letter in the book.

Founded in 2009, Reach recruits high school students to be elementary school reading tutors. Elementary school students average 1.5 grade levels of reading growth per year of participation. This growth- equal to that created by highly effective teachers- is created by high school students who average more than two grade levels of growth per year of program participation.

As skilled reading tutors, Reach teens noticed that books they read with their students did not reflect their world. Only 3% of children’s books feature characters of color, and only 1.8% of children’s books are written by authors of color. Reach’s tutors set out to change that, and have since created a series of professional-quality books capturing the voices and creativity of DC teens. A to Z: The Real DC is the first photographic book in the series.

Please support Reach’s after-school literacy programs by purchasing a copy of A to Z: The Real DC or the other original children’s books created by the Reach Incorporated teens: